Two options for savings
are presented in this chapter. The first offers specific recommendations to the
legislature on where to cut spending. The second option involves outsourcing
management of the entire system, and the savings that could be achieved.

Operating under Act 232 of 1953, the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) is
the citizen’s agent for limiting the liberty of those convicted of violating the
most serious of society’s legal standards of behavior. It does this through
operating prisons and camps, and administering systems of probation (an
alternative to imprisonment) and parole (supervision for a time after
imprisonment), as well as other means of punishment. There are many crime
prevention theories in the academic literature, and the department employs
several of them, including incarceration, deterrence, and rehabilitation.[3] It operates as guardian,
tutor, physician and counselor to those under its charge. In addition to
operating its own system of facilities, the department works with counties to
deal with criminals who commit less serious crimes.

The duties the Michigan Department of Corrections carries out include, but are
not limited to:

Housing lawbreakers in prisons, camps and
halfway houses

Monitoring lawbreakers on probation and parole
through meetings between the lawbreaker and department officials and through
electronic monitoring

Maintaining OTIS, a web-accessible database of
offenders

Notifying crime victims and their families of
prisoner activities

Overseeing the work of prisoners in building
houses and components of houses for low-income families in conjunction with
Habitat for Humanity

Operating businesses that employ prisoners to
create goods and sell services to state agencies and non-profit organizations
(Michigan State Industries)

Testing prisoners, probationers and parolees
for substance abuse

Operating residential treatment centers for
substance abuse

Identifying and providing counseling (group
and individual) for prisoners with mental health problems (Psychological
Service Units)

Operating a “Social Skills Development Unit”
that provides services for prisoners lacking social skills and a record of
self-care (such as basic hygiene)

Providing Adult Basic Education (ABE) leading
to the General Equivalency Degree (GED)

Conducting job-training programs in 13 trades
such as horticulture and auto mechanics

Supervising low-security-threat convicts on
community service projects such as washing police vehicles and maintaining
parks

Matching employers and prisoners through a
computerized job-search system.

The state’s correction system
represents one of the largest components of state spending. Indeed, the state
will spend over $1.7 billion operating the Department of Corrections during the
fiscal year 2003. Only 2 percent of that amount comes from federal funds; 95
percent comes from the general fund/general purpose portion of the state budget,
the area of the budget over which lawmakers have the most spending discretion.

The Department of Corrections (DOC) was responsible for administering criminal
penalties to roughly 1.2 percent of Michigan’s population, or 121,215
individuals as of Feb. 28, 2003.[4]
It operates 42 prisons and 11 camps (including one “boot camp”), which house
over 86,000 prisoners. DOC employees monitor an additional 54,000 convicts
through probation and another 14,000 through parole. The department also houses
approximately 450 offenders in corrections centers (halfway houses) and
supervises approximately 1,000 people through electronic monitoring (“tethers”).[5]
In an attempt to reduce the cost of building and operating more prison beds, the
department contracts with counties to house certain inmates; in fiscal year
2001, it paid counties over $17.1 million to house nearly 4,700 offenders in
county jails rather than state prisons.[6]

The DOC employs a large number
of people — nearly 19,000 — to oversee this population. Roughly half of the
department’s employees are corrections officers (prison guards). The other half
includes not only parole and probation agents, along with managers and
administrative support, but social workers, teachers and medical personnel.
Within and alongside a prison system, the department runs healthcare,
job-training, and social-service systems.

The state attempts to help prisoners with their re-entry into society. But so do
religious and secular groups such as Prison Fellowship and the Safer Foundation.
Commercial firms such as Corrections Corporation of America and Cornell
Corrections build and operate entire prisons for other states, often providing
higher quality at a lower cost. These private-sector companies could run similar
operations here. In New Mexico, 44 percent of prisoners are incarcerated under
private management. In Michigan, less than 1 percent are managed privately.